Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The best blueberry muffin recipe in the world

Every so often Clemence Gossett, a fabulous baking instructor and co-founder of The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories in Santa Monica, sends one of her recipes out to her email list. Clemence's recipes are exactly my kinds of sweets: never fussy, always achievable and truly delicious.

Last year Clemence sent a message titled "The Muffin Method" detailing her general muffin philosophies and proportions. I make muffins all the time, so I kept it in my inbox. It took me a year, but I finally pulled it out this weekend to make some blueberry muffins.

I read the recipe three times before I started. I was confused. No eggs? Two tablespoons of baking powder? I'd never seen a blueberry muffin recipe like that. I wondered if Clemence had erred. Hah! I should have known better than to doubt a French baker. Clemence's recipes are well-tested.

These are the best blueberry muffins I've ever tasted. They're closer to cake than to health food - don't let the fruit fool you. But if you can't indulge in a sweet muffin or two (or seven, in the case of my nine-year-old) on a lazy Sunday, when can you?

Light, sweet and delightful: These are the best blueberry muffins I've ever tasted, hands down. Thanks to Clemence Gossett of The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories for this recipe.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 cup milk

1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

5 ounces butter, cut into pieces

3 cups fresh blueberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 24-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.In a glass or ceramic microwave-safe bowl, put the sugar, milk, yogurt or sour cream, and butter. Microwave the bowl 1 minute on high, or until the butter is starting to melt and the bowl is warm. Whisk the mixture until you see little bits of butter floating in the mixture.Add the blueberries to the flour mixture and toss to coat. Pour over the milk mixture and slowly, carefully, fold together with a large spoon or spatula. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough. Streaks of flour are perfectly okay.Divide the batter among the muffin tins and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it and the tops are starting to turn golden brown. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then remove the muffins to a rack to cool completely.

43 comments:

Oh my goodness! The name of this post alone makes me hungry. Those muffins look delicious! Funny you mentioned the Ferry building, I visited there for the first time yesterday and was mourning the fact that we don't have something similar in LA. I'll have to check out Gourmandise, thanks for the recommendation! :)

I never use frozen, but try a) putting them in frozen at the last minute so no time to thaw and b) toss them in flour before adding to the batter. The coating of flour may absorb some of the excess juice.

Was your batter very doughy? I've always managed to mess something up in a recipe and I'm not sure if I've done that again with this one. I wish you could of posted a picture of the muffins before you put them in the oven so I could compare. I'll let you know h.ow they turn out though:)

YAY you responded! I actually think I under mixed it in fear of over mixing it. They turned out fine but like a biscuit. Practice makes perfect though so I'll keep trying! Thank you for the great recipies you've shared with everyone.

The title of this recipe is appropriate, to say the very least. These muffins were tender and moist, and with a slightly tempered sweetness that I want to experiment with, on other muffin recipes. An extra step, but to me, well worth it, is to grease the muffin wells with shortening and then PAM spray the wells. Paper liners were not used, and the muffins popped out easily.

Besides which, now that I've discovered the website that Erika shared (replete with recipes) where this recipe came from, I'm having lots of fun....last night I made Honey Almond Chocolate mousse and it was stellar. I did not fold the almond nougatine into the mousse. Instead I topped each mousse with whipped cream and put a goodly amount of the almond confection (roughly chopped) over. Just wonderful.

I went to a bbq today and decided at the last minute to make muffins. I realized I had no eggs and your recipe came up as one of the first I searched. They were so fast and easy to make and they were without a doubt one of the best muffins I ever made. Needless to say there were no leftovers. Thank you ��

I have made these twice now for my little grandson who has an egg allergy and he loves them. I lessen the sugar, and I do use frozen blueberries. This time I wanted to substitute some of the white flour with whole wheat. Should work?!